Day 66: The First Clinical Day

Tonight the post will be shorter, since I have to get to bed earlier; I have to adjust my body to get up earlier than with the Spanish classes.

Today I arrived at the hospital at 08.30 and the first patient entered the room about 5 minutes later. He was a Myasthemia case that was not yet too severe. Myasthemia is a disease that affects the neurotransmitters that are located inside the voluntary muscles. Simply put, the immune system produces what are called antibodies and they block off the nerve passageways, stopping the signals from reaching the muscles. In extreme cases the muscles that control breathing can be affected, and essentially stop working. I did some more research this afternoon to better understand what I had seen and heard during the day. The guys is participating in a study being conducted from the University of Alabama of global cases of Myasthemia. There are 12 cases in Buenos Aires currently, and Dr. Mazia is heading the case study here. He sent a sample of blood off to the United States because when the antibodies block or destroy the connection between muscles and nerve, the change is visible in the bloodstream. Dr. Mazia and another female doctor conducted some other muscle resistance and strength tests. The patient today was not a very advanced case and from what I understood he was not getting any worse while taking the study's medicine.

Apart from that there was only one other patient during the day. This patient had quite the mouthful of a condition: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which is also commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease after the famous baseball player who died from ALS. That was an interesting case in which the neurons slowly stop 'working' and muscle control drops along with muscle atrophy. The patient had had tracheal surgery and could no longer talk or control some of the mouth movements, particularly the lower lip. He had to frequently use a kleenex to dab at the saliva that he could not prevent from exiting his mouth. The rest of his body seemed to be functioning well enough, he only had complaints (voiced through the assistance of who I believe were his wife and daughter) about his right arm which was weaker than the left and had a more limited range of motion.

Dr. Mazia is currently writing a book, so an illustrator stopped by towards the end of morning to discuss the first of a few images he wanted to include along with his writings. His topic was related to Myasthemia, but I am unsure of exactly what other topics it is to cover. I only was able to glance at the first page, where the image is supposed to go. Dr. Mazia is leaving tomorrow afternoon for a conference in Toronto, Canada for next week, so my schedule will be a little different from expected, although I do not know now if it will be better or worse:

While Dr. Mazia is out of the country I am to observe in some of the classes offered to medical students in the hospital. I met with the teacher, a doctor, today briefly and she told me that there would be two classes every day except Wednesday. I am quite interested to see how much (if anything) I will be able to understand in these classes; I do not know at what level they will be. No matter what, I am looking forward to the opportunity.

Alright, to talk a little about the Tango class. There were only 3 students: another beginner girl from California and an Argentinean guy who as slightly more competent. The class was 1.5 hours long, with two instructors who were both super nice and helpful. I learned quite a lot and learned that the Ballroom dancing that I know will not really help me at all here. The comment I received most was to drop the posture I had learned to adopt for dances such as the Waltz. Quite the opposite here. But I had fun, which is most important, and I feel like I really will learn a lot. The only problem (yes, as always there is some problem) is with the payment for the classes.

The man who arranged my visit, the school, the hospital, the dancing, made some sort of communicational error. The owner of the studio was expecting some 'Dylan' to take classes between the 15th and 26th of February. I have no idea who that was supposed to be, definitely not me since the receipt that I was given after paying for the program said that I would be taking classes during the month of April a long with my time in the hospital. So... somewhere something went wrong. I just hope it can be resolved without too much fuss and I can just take the lessons, I am really not ready for a bunch of complications.

Alright, off to bed shortly after sending a message to the program coordinator. I am tired, it is late, and I have to get up at the snap crackle and pop of dawn tomorrow. I think I have just invented a fantastic new expression. I plan to use it more frequently, and I give all of you readers full permission to use it if you so care. I do not know if this post was exceptionally short, I guess I had plenty to say.

Chao.